What if some machines still use Microsoft Windows XP after support ends April 8?

Ask Control Engineering blog: After April 8, Microsoft support for Windows XP ends. If you're still using it on April 9, there are extra precautions.

Mark T. Hoske

04/04/2014

Ask Control Engineering: Some machines I have still need to use Microsoft Windows XP after support ends on April 8, 2014. What can I do?

A: After April 8, Microsoft support for Windows XP ends. If you're still using it on April 9, there are precautions, according to Dennis Brandl, president of BR&L Consulting, in Cary, N.C. He writes "Engineering and IT Insight" for Control Engineering.

Unless Microsoft outsources Windows XP support to an independent third party to provide Lifetime Support XP (lsXP), then "unfortunately, there is no easy answer to the upcoming loss of support for Windows XP," Brandl said.

"These systems will become more expensive to maintain and replace. This is the hidden future cost of using commercial software on systems that have lifetimes of 15-30 years. If this is not a wakeup call for vendors to take a long, hard look at the systems they use for their systems, then it is a wakeup call for end users to demand software that lasts as long as the hardware," Brandl said.